The Good
It all comes to an end here! The Armor Hunters and the forces of Earth come head-to-head to help decide Aric and the armor's fate!
As far as events go, this was a ton of fun and a very thrilling read. Aside from that, there are moments that have longterm affects on Aric. Spoilers abound! After all is said and done, Aric is hurt and the armor can't heal him. Livewire does a bit of her magic to stop the spread of the Armor virus. In doing so, Aric is in control of when the armor heals him. However, every time he uses it, he's less of a man and more of the armor. Eventually, Aric will no longer exist. This is a great move for the series and adds the element of the "timed bomb" essentially. At some point, things are really going to change for Aric and it will be for the worse. In addition, it may prove the Armor Hunters to be right, but we'll have to wait and see. Writer Robert Venditti goes a bit more depth into it in X-O MANOWAR #29, which I highly recommend checking out.
There's a great call-to-arms moment where Aric has to decide whether or not to help the rest of the heroes in the Valiant universe, and I'm using the term "heroes" loosely. This final issue of ARMOR HUNTERS is like a very condensed version of Joesph Campell's Heroes Journey. It's an exciting and fun ride going through these final moments of the event and it follows a well-known formula that works. Venditti really nails it here.
If you're in the market for some really awesome art, the ARMOR HUNTERS is the way to go. Doug Braithwaite, with Laura Martin on colors, provide some exciting and beautiful imagery that perfectly compliments the writing. Braithwaite has some wonderful page layouts and every single page is a huge treat for the reader. Martin just does such a wonderful job with colors. Her shading ad lighting are simply brilliant. Laura Martin's work here will make you excited about colorwork on a comic. That's not a knock on all the colorists working in the industry though. That's just how impressed I am with her work here.
The Bad
As far as events go, I have some high standards. The final issue does wrap up a little too quickly for me. If this issue was combine with X-O MANOWAR #29, this easily would have been 5/5, since the aftermath in that issue is such a phenomenal resolution to this whole event.
As stated above, this does move way too quickly. While the idea of chaos does help move along a final issue and final battle, things get a little too chaotic and times and it eventually ends abruptly. None of this is executed poorly, keep in mind, but it feels just a tad off and rushed.
The Verdict
ARMOR HUNTERS ends in a bang. Venditti, Braithwaite, and Martin provide a fantastic event that is overall very solid. While there were a couple times things felt a bit chaotic and things did play out as naturally as they should, reading this, then X-O MANOWAR #29 right afterwards made this event feel very full. I've said time and time again that this is how events should be done, and although I had minor complaints about this issue, overall, I still really believe that this is one of the better events in the past 5 years. You should probably pick this one up.